Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot

Episode Date: February 19, 2025

Get ready for some robot fighting mixed in with some upsetting pet death in this week's exploration of season 15. Homer and Bart take up the bulk of the plot with a timely parody of Battlebots/Robot Wars (and don't worry, we explain the US/UK differences). At the same time, the show kills off Snowball II in such an offhand way that it's still annoying 20 years later. Will you be as upset as Armin Tamzarian? Listen now and find out! Support this podcast and get over 200 ad-free bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! And please follow the official Twitter, @TalkSimpsonsPod, not to mention Bluesky and Instagram!

This podcast is brought to you by Patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. Head there to check out exclusive podcasts like Talking Futurama, Talk King of the Hill, the What a Cartoon Movie Podcast, and tons more. or product. Ahoy, ahoy everybody and welcome to Talking Simpsons where our motto is, if you can't build a robot, be a robot. I'm one of your hosts, the shag sucker Bob Mackie, and this is our chronological exploration of The Simpsons, who is here with me today as always... Nobody gets madder at the news than me, Henry Gilbert!

And this week's episode is I, Dobot! I'm riding a unicycle with my pants down. This should be every boy's dream! Ha ha! Your dad's not handy! This episode originally aired on January 11th, 2004. And as always, Henry will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history. Oh! Oh my God!

Oh boy, Bobby, a famous NFL game delays this episode of the Simpsons by 40 minutes. Alonkane Polly tops the box office and John Kerry is about to be Howard Dean at the Iowa caucus for the Democratic nomination. Do we know which game this was? Because I'm guessing it went into triple double overtime. Yes, actually to NFL fans, it is so famous it has its own Wikipedia page called fourth

and 26 is the name of the play. It is the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Green Bay Packers in overtime and this is part of the NFL playoffs though neither of them make it to the Super Bowl it ended it like 830 and then the postgame is gonna keep it even longer and I recall that related to this episode and watching it on that time as an East Coast viewer but yes basically the Eagles were certainly about to lose. They're at fourth and down, and they have to get 26 yards,

which is almost impossible, and they did it! And then they come back and win the game, but in overtime, meaning the Simpsons had to suffer for this classic play. And I'm sure Futurama, King of the Hill, wiped off the map. Well, Futurama had already been wiped off the map. Who am I kidding? It's 2004 on Fox.

Yeah, King of the Hill probably just had to just completely wait a week on our East Coast feeds and X-Files, which I'm assuming was... Oh, no, wait, no, X-Files is off the air now. What am I saying? It's Malcolm in the Middle and 24. Those are the shows with this. And probably something else that got... Whatever the Oliver Bean of 2004 was. Well, this will surprise none of our listeners, but I did not follow Ben Stiller past the 90s. I was kind of done with him. I didn't even watch Analyze This. Wait, is

he in that movie? Meet the Fuckers. I don't know why I confused those two. They're both a Jewish guy versus Robert De Niro. That's what it is. Thank you. I apologize. I'm ignorant. But this movie, I remember it being sort of like there's something about Mary kind of deal but a little toned out. And Hank Azaria is in it, and it's even mentioned on a Simpsons commentary. Yeah, I did see this in theaters, I should say. And by see this, I mean, cleaned the theater

and saw the last five minutes of it before the credits, which is how I know that Hank Azaria's entire character is that he sandwiches the movie as the man that Deborah Messing leaves Ben Stiller for. He's a French scuba diver who has a very silly accent, can you believe it? Thank you, Zarya. Playing a foreigner?

That's shocking. Now, I'm looking at the Wikipedia description and it does seem like a gross-out romantic comedy in the vein of something about Mary. Here's a little example of what happens in the movie. So paragraph two begins with, Ruben, Ben Stiller, asks Polly out and she invites him to dinner at a Moroccan restaurant which he agrees to despite having irritable bowel syndrome. The date ends badly when Ruben clogs Polly's toilet

but she gives him a second chance and the two go salsa dancing. So you get some love and companionship and you also get a bunch of shit. Just a bunch of shit clogging a toilet. And that is an early odds comedy. I feel like your blind ferret gets covered in toilet water in that scene, if I recall correctly.

But what I definitely recall correctly is that Hank's area had never been in better shape, does basically like a full, well you don't see genitals, but you see almost all of his body, including his butt, and it is to set up the joke at the end of the movie to show Ben Stiller's progress that he's the one on the nude beach and you see his butt at the end to show like, oh, he's not so buttoned down anymore. He'll go to the nude beach and he'll be the naked guy, not Hank Azaria's Philippe character, whatever

his name was. It is so so nothing like these are the romantic Comedy that were a diamond dozen then and I think the only other reason you'd want to watch it is if you are a Philip Seymour Hoffman Completist and he is great and everything like I watch patch Adams to see Seymour Hoffman stuff and that movie is shit except for him We are so desperate for anything people remember in terms of when we make new things that I imagine Along Came Polly 2

will be a Peacock exclusive. Or the Along Came Polly prequel, eight episodes. We gotta check in. Did that free spirit Polly ever touch ground? Did she ever become a regular lady? I wonder. I wanna know. And what was the other news item, John Kerry?

Beah! We're a week away from Bia. The Dean Scream. A man dared to get excited about the potential of becoming the president, and he was assassinated politically. Not physically, though. Well, because he was what Howard Dean is described as being left-wing. Actually, I guess he'd be like really left-wing for the Democratic Party now. But back then, it was, oh boy, what a great time it was to see John Kerry's moderate position of invading Iraq was good and I voted for it, but it's bad

now, but only because Bush is bad at it. And Howard Dean, daring to say slightly more left-wing things on that, on Iraq, he had to be taken down by the media and they succeeded in replaying that yell clip of his. Yeah. I remember thinking this was a new low, but we've sunk much lower. It was when Dennis Miller had a TV show.

It was when he had turned conservative after 9-11, or got more conservative, explicitly conservative. That's how he was selling himself. And on the show, he had a button that whenever he hit it, it would do the Howard Dean scream. Wow, wow, that was his soundboard? Was the Howard Dean scream? It's not even memorable.

He just like said, yeah, at the end of the, we were so fucked in the head then, unlike now when things are normal and everything's normal. Yeah, it turns out that Dean at this point was a supporter of universal healthcare. He flipped on that much later, but yes, he was too far to the left, I think. And now we're not even talking about that anymore.

Yes, no, I mean, well, he eventually became like DNC chair, which I think is now just reserved for like the oldest of cancer patients, I think. Yeah, you know, due to recent events, it feels like people aren't happy with their health care. I can't put my finger on it, but. But oh well, John Kerry, yes, he is about to report for duty in this era of The Simpsons. This is Bob Mackie reporting for duty. And then he immediately is just pulled off stage with a giant cane. I guess that's what happened in history in early 2004.

Miserable time to be alive. And there is no guest with us today because we are working a little bit ahead after the holidays. And this episode, while it's visually stunning, it's kind of middle of the road, I think. This one really shows you that an average script in this area, Simpson's level of average, if you get your best director on it, it becomes a good episode. Like I've come to this conclusion a while ago on this podcast, but it's been proven to me that a great script with a bad director becomes a bad Simpsons episode. A bad script, and I'm not calling this a bad script, but a bad script with a great director becomes a good episode.

I think we need another Simpsons director who went to Harvard with Al Jean. So they're given permissions that Lauren McMullen was given back then. She has the cheat code. I think that Lauren McMullen is absolutely one of the most talented directors there at work on the show, as proven by the other great work she's done outside of The Simpsons. But I also think that she is given so much more trust

because she's in the Harvard Club that your Mark Kirklands are not in the Harvard Club, despite being their great directors too, and should get more of a leeway. Yeah, watching one of her episodes is like watching a season four rough draft animated episodes. She's allowed to do these flourishes that are normally frowned upon by the producers.

Yeah, though actually even she on the commentary is great because Al Jean is complimenting the great work that's on screen, which he absolutely should, it's deserved, And he mentions like, oh, look at all the shadows on everybody. And McMullen brings up, I was admonished by an unnamed producer for it being too shadowy.

Yeah, I do remember her talking about that pushback on the commentary. So yeah, even someone in her position was getting a little pushback on certain artistic choices. And if things worked out the way they should have, she would have been supervising director of the show. That would have been a nice animation era for The Simpsons, but she went to Disney.

Well, Airbender first, Airbender first, then Disney. And she seemed to have not a very good time on The Simpsons movie based on what she told us when we interviewed her a while back. That may explain why she never worked on the show again. Yeah, though this commentary is after the movie, so it seemed like she's at least friendly with Al Jean. And strangely enough, this commentary

features Alan Sepinwall, TV critic, and it is such a glorious time capsule because they say it's the year 2011 on this commentary. And they're talking to Alan about this new popular kind of criticism in which people review every episode of a TV show. That just brought me back to that era because I'm sure that exists in some format, but because every website is dead or is now just like an AI version of its former self, we are not talking about those anymore.

But this is a very popular time for the episode capsule format. I remember as soon as something was over, I would rush to the AV club, read the review, read all of the comments. And now not all the times, but sometimes I do go to Reddit and read the Reddit thread about an episode, but it's not the same because you don't really have a critic leading the discussion with the review first. It was a magical time around 2011 when they seem to have recorded this. I would have done it the

most for community like I was so into community and community is a show made to be discussed by geeks on a website and it was a perfect I engaged all the time I saw that when they recorded this that Sepp and wall was writing for a hit fix as the TV critic which I feel like I read that some then but I really was more of an AV all the AV Club greats, including Emily St. James we had on the podcast. But in television without pity, that's where I read a lot of them. Yeah.

He wrote for Uproxx, which no longer exists. I think HitFix no longer exists. I don't know if these things are still around, but yeah, I was reading Breaking Bad episode reviews, keeping up with the discussion there on AV Club, things like Mr. Show, The Simpsons, Nathan Rabin I think kicked off the classic Simpsons episode capsule reviews. They're even going back in time and reviewing every episode of old shows. It was such a popular format. But popular writing doesn't pay the bills when you need exponential growth

and you own a website. Yeah, you mentioned Nathan Rabin. We've had him on multiple times. We love his work then. And yeah, unfortunately, people like that who did those jobs, most of them had to go the Patreon or Substack route. We loved his work then and yeah, unfortunately, people like that who did those jobs, most of them had to go the Patreon or Substack route, though I did see that Sepp and Wall still is employed by the Rolling Stone, but he also has his own Substack, which makes me think that it's nice of Rolling Stone to let him supplement that while still being

an employee. Like in our online media days, that was a little rougher to be it didn't always happen they let you have a side gig like that yeah and things are pretty rough in that industry now if you can believe that they can get worse and we just experienced another round of layoffs right before the new year and I'm just wondering how are there still people left to lay off and number two do you guys still want to have websites anymore these people who own them you need content I think they're just waiting for the robots to get smart enough.

Oh yeah. They've been feeding it into the thing as much as they can. And hopefully, you know, it all just falls apart. Makes the executives poor. Say, I can't believe there's still a rollingstone.com that exists either to, to employ Alan Sepulwal these days. Yeah. Because big brands like that, like sports illustrated is now just a brand name.

It's not a publication anymore. Is that correct? I think so I definitely the magazine is gone and the last time I heard anything about Sports Illustrated is that it was used for branding of like a racetrack that used to be like the Red Bull racetrack I think. Hmm yeah I mean we don't want to bring people down up front but it's just interesting to remember a time when online media criticism was a valid in burgeoning industry and a very popular form of criticism, these episode capsules. Well, and Seppenwall like had the, I definitely did read his stuff.

I don't want to say like, I never heard of this guy. I had heard of it when I saw on his Wiki page. It mentions that like, he was the first person to interview David Chase after the finale of Sopranos. I was like, okay, I definitely remember reading that at the time. And yeah, I mean, Vince Gilligan loved talking to him. He definitely was a core part of the peak TV era and the aggrandizing of showrunners.

So I can also see why the Simpsons people wanted to talk to him. Yeah, I'm glad he still is employed in doing his thing because I do like his work, but it feels like to be in his position, you need to have been a Gen Xer who got their foot in the door in the 90s, and that's the only reason he can do what he's doing. Also, he's a podcast quitter, and I must judge him for that. That I will be harsh about.

If you start a podcast, you do it until you die, okay? That's what Henry and I signed up for. I will be in hospice recording episodes, recording our fifth go-round of season five. Meanwhile, his last podcast was in 2021 with only 11 episodes of rewatching things with famous people, a big whoop, like now I am slightly kidding about it,

but you are not allowed to quit a podcast. When I'm 90, you'll hear me saying, I thought it was funny when Bart got the elephant. And then you'll hear the flat line of my EKG machine. I remember 2042 when we first watched this one. Oh well. It's funny too that they had him on because in 2016 he would co-author TV the Book, which ranked all like 300 something American TV shows

and Simpsons was number one in it, which I agree with. I don't think that's you know BS ranking I put it in number one. Oh, yeah, absolutely though also talking about College cronies late in the commentary. It does come up that he went to the same college as Matt Yeah, I think University of Pennsylvania. I'm pretty sure that's where he came from Yeah, it is interesting to have him on there if for only one discussion point he brings into it which I'm glad he did. Which angered up our blood and we'll get to it. You know when

I first saw this episode I remember hating it I think actually this was the one that made me really drop off from regular weekly viewing I think this was it. I mean I hung in there for at least five more years in regular Sunday night viewing, but I hated BattleBots so much for what it did to Comedy Central that I just rejected this premise outright. You know, it was definitely the BattleBots thing

to board me a little, but it was the Snowball 2 stuff. Like, it made me so mad, especially the last scene, which then when I listened to the commentary the first time, I got furious all over again. And now we've got to it on the podcast over a decade after I heard that on the commentary and I'm mad all over again. Yeah. They make some pretty bold choices. They talk about the Dan Grady, who I wish was on the commentary. He only had the pitch of the BattleBots idea of like Homer and Barco on BattleBots. Like that easy pitch there. Totally makes sense. And I guess the cat subplot is related to something that

happened to one of Al Jean's daughters and he jokes that he didn't bother to consult her as to whether that would be okay to depict on the show. He's like, I'm gonna mine this horrible tragedy for comedy and I guess she was fine with it. Yeah, it's like he said she had three cat deaths in quick succession which like geez that does sound rough. Oh, and then apparently they say on Dan Graney's behalf that he was not inspired by the 1963 Twilight Zone episode, Steel, which is basically about how boxing becomes a robot sport in the near future. And then a retired boxer dresses up as a robot so he can get back into the ring. That must not be a popular one then.

No, though it was officially adapted into the 2011 Hugh Jackman film, Real Steel. I was going to ask if that was related. Yes, yeah, that's an accredited adaptation, but Grainy says that, they say on the commentary that Grainy was not pulling from Twilight Zone, unlike so many episodes of The Simpsons that did pull from Twilight Zone.

Oh, another thing I did love hearing McMullen mention that she talked about how her 80 Raymond S. Perry really wanted to get them back to the older, uglier character designs, which is like, yes, finally, we must return. We must return to the ugliness. Yeah, I think they talked about making Nelson and characters like Nelson and Mo very ugly when you see them. They're like enhancing the ugliness. Yeah I think they talked about making Nelson and characters like Nelson and Mo very ugly when you see them. They're like

enhancing the ugliness. She knows that's what I love every time I hear her on these commentaries. She knows what's wrong and she's trying to fix it as best she can but the tide is moving in the other direction. Like she can't fight against it forever which is too bad but she's trying. That's something I love to see. But yeah this episode begins after a a cute Simpson's as cake toppers couch gag, which then is frosting looks adorable and delicious, but maybe that's cause I'm on my post new year's diets and they look so delicious. I wish the cake was a couch.

It's just the cake. Oh yeah. That is an improvement on it. Yeah. It's just a cake. Well, Hey, at least the coloring on the frosting makes it look like frosting It's good color design and before this episode started. I know it was directed by Laura McMullin I try to stay critical and I think at first is this really gonna look any different immediately

It does immediately off the bat, you know, it's one of her episodes Milhouse jumping into frame, he is moving so much better than he ever has the way he like, he runs into camera and the camera is like in his mouth and they use that for a cross cut and then him dodging the sprinklers like it's incredible. Yeah, it looks really good. And it's not whenever there is a animation flourish

on a newer episode, the tools that they have are ill equipped to make something look this good. So it looks a little mushy here. It's just like very great smears and great poses and it just very quick movement that looks super effective in convincing that he's sliding around on this wet lawn. Some of my favorite things about so many of McMullen's work, like this is on Mission Hill. This was in her Oscar nominated short, Get a horse, which I just rewatched recently. Like she loves golden age of rubber hose cartooning, like Fleischer and Disney, all those original cartoons. And she gets that energy in there. At the end of the episode, I feel like there's two things in it that are like,

Oh, this is like straight out of Fleischer and Disney cartoon of the like thirties. But yeah, Millhouse has never looked better running down here. Though also there's like a weird cut. I feel like there's one last beat after he's off of the clothesline. I feel like there should be one more thing there, but there's no deleted scenes on the DVD. Yeah. He is going hand over hand on this clothesline and dogs are jumping and

nipping at him. It feels like it's missing a joke. Yeah. Yeah. Cause he's just right at their front lawn in the next shot, and something's missing. But I guess they needed the time for Milhouse to lay on the ground for a disturbing amount of time after being knocked unconscious by Homer,

which I like that Homer's like, Marge, that creepy kid is here, and leaves him there for four hours. The birds are circling around his unconscious body. It feels like they were really into this at this era. They start an episode with, Bard and Milhouse get a new kid's toy. Definitely that was the start of the Treehouse of Horror with the clock stopping gag, but also the $1,000 bill is kind of that too. Yeah, yeah.

And I guess this probably is from the writers' generation, bike conversion kits. I I don't remember these growing up I'm sure they were still available when we were kids like putting a baseball card in the spokes We were just doing it because like you saw it in old cartoons or Dennis the men I was gonna say Dennis the menace did it and he was my role model before Bart Nickelodeon forced us to watch a lot of Dennis the menace reruns that no kid Younger than us would ever watch because there's too much original programming. If you were born in like 1987, you never saw Dennis the Menace. We were trained by the Dennis the Menace cartoons and Dairy Queen commercials to then watch

Black and White Jay North sitcoms. So Bart picks up his psycho cycle, which looks just like a Big Daddy Roth style drawing. It's a good logo. I like it. And he calls them Marine Corps tassels, which that is a good, like kid, tough naming of girl tassels. Yeah. Just because they're red, white and blue.

And I like that Millhouse takes it as like, Oh, this is for a special someone means a tattoo for your best friend, but it says biker chick. Good design on that biker chick logo. There's just a rose woven between the letters or just a flower woven between the letters. It's very nice. Yeah, hearing Mellon talk on it, I loved her describing how she,

part of her directing job, and they asked like, oh, how much drawing does a director do? And she mentions like a big part of her, what she sees directing as is casting. Like she knows what artists on her team are good at what and who could draw things good. And so even if she didn't draw the scenes or design a logo, I do feel like complimenting her because she picked the right person for that job and got these great designs in here. So they get on the bike and guess what?

It's time for an obvious music cue. 8 seconds of Steppenwolf. How much did this cost? I always question, did you need this? If it's not for a montage, I'm just wondering, God, what a waste. But then Disney has to pay for it later, so I'm okay with that. Yeah, I hate to sound like a Fox News Corp bean counter every time these things come in, but it's just like, magic carpet ride ride is it's not used enough to be like, Oh, what an obvious joke.

Like it's not used in that way. It just is. Yeah. Magic carpet ride. Like it's so corny that like the Austin powers, the spy who shagged me used it of just like, get it, it's the sixties music drop and you can buy a thing like Bart's moto mimic today. Even it's a, you can get one for 30 bucks called a turbo spoke that makes your it sound

like a motorcycle you can annoy your entire neighborhood and it's so convincing that it even scares a cab like a motorcycle gang and we don't have back up we better lay low chief what if they like pizza? Way ahead of you, Lou. Mm. That is one bitchin' bike. Daddy said a cuss word. Lighten up, Roddy. Ha-ha! It's the Baby Bike Brigade!

Hey, Bart, I used to have a bike like that back before I was born. Oh, no. They've got big boy bikes Thanks for the tassels my mom can wear these on her boobs at work Good slam on Domino's although I think they were worried about offending a potential advertiser or getting sued so dominoes is spelled with an E. Yeah, though I wonder where this came in and where the mistake was but if you freeze frame it as he pulls it out it says dominoes when he places it down then the E's at the end. I guess they couldn't decide on their low effort parody name that's supposed to just indicate it's a parent we're making fun of.

Now I was looking into this dom Domino's was at the time known for having very bad pizza to the point where in 2009 they had a whole campaign saying, we know our pizza is shit. We're turning things around and I'm proud to announce that Domino's is pretty good now. Although I try to not get fast food pizza, they do make very good vegetarian option pizza and we do get it occasionally here,

but we're surrounded by great pizza places. Domino's moved up the ranking for me too, after that Oh nine thing, like this advertisement wasn't live, but they, it was funny to see in Oh nine that they're like, look, we know we're the shittiest one and should we just close up shop and kill ourselves? No, no, we're going to make it better. Yeah. You know, but pizza hut really fell off. I feel again, we're return guys. I think we referenced that earlier. Did Hut really fell off, I feel. Again, we're return guys. I think we referenced that earlier. Did we reference that earlier? I did. Okay. When it comes to Pizza Hut,

because we need to get the hut-shaped buildings back. We need the hanging stained glass lights. We need the red cups. We need to make this a family eatery. We're bringing family back in 2025. It has gone from like a Domino's and I rarely order out pizza too, but, and this is more like at a party or a friend's house thing, but in the last decade, it really has become like Domino's is a box. I like seeing more than Pizza Hut. And it was not that when I was a kid, like me and my brother would always insist on like, mom, no pizza, Pizza Hut. I don't care if it's like a $5 cheaper at Domino's. Like, our tiers are like Pizza Hut, Papa John's,

then Little Caesars, and then Domino's. If all else failed. But then, shortly after this, Little Caesars became the dominant pizza brand because of the economic global collapse, so they would say up front, we're giving you a pizza for $5. Don't ask how this is possible. You're getting a lot of calories for $5. So

just please take it home. In Canada, isn't it called pizza pizza? I believe that's unrelated. I had questions about that. I think they just took the little Caesar's catchphrase and made their own restaurant, but they have their pizza is also very, very cheap. Well, thinking of pizza and other nations as well, reminded me like when I saw this joke, I thought, wait, is this like their Butterfinger jokes about making fun of, you know, their actual sponsorship deals once they're over and technically yes, but not in America. The Simpsons have never advertised Domino's pizza in the United States, but in the UK for British listeners,

they probably deeply associate the Simpsons with Domino's because Domino's UK advertised with the Simpsons like from the sky one day. That's right. The earliest day. I think we might have reviewed old commercials at some point on our Patreon. We asked Libby Watson about it as her experience as a British viewer and they even did a Domino's ad like years after this in the UK like with original they paid for real Simpsons animation Domino's UK ad. It was really strange. So I wonder, was this cut from any UK broadcasts?

I wonder. Let us know, British listeners, if you saw this one new back then, do you remember this joke about Domino's having shitty pizza? If you watched it on the telly in 2004. Man, what's the cute British nickname for pizza? Pizzi. Pizzi. Pizzi.

I like the joke that Ned is getting sick of his character trait of being too vanilla. Like even he's telling Rod to lighten up about bitching. I think it's slightly unrealistic that the bullies are such serious cyclists. I have to assume they beat people up and stole these. Yeah, we're not seeing the pile of cyclists that were injured so they could steal their bikes

and get these cyclist outfits helmets too. And when I see this Kearney joke here, the Real Jims did a really good video charting is Kearney an adult or not history of the show and this feels like where the tide is turning back to like we write him as an older kid again not as a man in his like 20s who's divorced. Yeah yeah uh it is inconsistent though. This joke that Oh, I'll get these tassels from my mom. It's like, no, Nelson's mom is a stripper. Like that's the joke. Why is this Kearney's joke? Yeah. I guess all of their moms can be strippers. Brandeen is a strip. There's lots of stripper ladies in the Simpsons.

That was one of my favorite bits in the women version of 22 short films was Nelson's mom telling a bedtime story to Nelson about was her relating stories of working at the club and her problems with other performers. It was a fun slightly more sex positive story. I think that one was called women in shorts. That's it yes yeah from the most recent season which it's hard to remember was mere days after the election. So if you're hazy on it, I don't blame you. They make fun of Bart. Bart gives chase shockingly.

They don't call Bart and Milhouse gay for riding the bike together the way they are. But yeah, I feel like that would be your go-to in 2004, but hey, maybe they cut a joke there too. Bart's putting up his hand. Like another thing happened after he was told I had that before I was born. Then they go into first gear, which I had a kid's bike and never got a better bike. So I would assume first gear is an easier gear than higher gears. Certain gears that make it easier to go uphill and certain gears make it easier

to go downhill. I had a bike with gears, although I never looked at what gear I was in. I was like, okay, if I push the handle this way, I have more resistance, which makes it easier to go up the hill. Well, also I lived in a very flat area growing up as a kid, so hills weren't much of a thing. I was more of an indoor kid than a bike kid anyway. You'll be shocked to learn, listener. So Bart is so hurt by this

that he realizes he needs his own bike too. Oh man, I sure wish I had a 10-speed bike. A 10-speed bike? What did your mother say? She said yes. I said no! I'm confused. Which is it? It's no! His old bike is fine! Yeah, the kitchen lady's right. No new bike while your old one still works.

I see. So if my old bike didn't work, I would automatically get a new one? That's right. No questions asked. Ha ha ha ha ha. Calling Marge the Kitchen Lady, that gave me a good laugh. I like that. Yes. They need to set Homer up to be a jerk too, because they're going to punish him a lot later.

I don't think they give him enough jerk material, though. It's strange in a season 15 one to be complaining, like, Homer's not enough of a jerk in this episode Mm-hmm. It's funny. He even is like he's ready to give Bart a bike like I mean, it's the classic You know, what did your mother say you ask your mother joke? I get that but you could make Homer more of the jerk here if he's just the one he's like no I'm not spending my hard-earned money on a new bike for you I guess he gets really punished at the end of this episode again He gets like sawed and shot at and everything.

And his ultimate sin is just being too cheap to pay for someone to build a bike. I do like the emotional core of this being that Homer wants to be a good dad. Like that's what actually is driving him instead of just like selfishness or being a pig or drunk. Bart realizes the loophole Homer presents to him that if his bike is destroyed, he'd get a new one. No questions asked. It also be about other things that feel like deleted jokes. Homer's newspaper he's reading has such a specific looking drawing on it that I feel like there's a headline joke that's lost here.

I didn't even notice that. I feel like they should have started on that and pulled out or something. Yeah, yeah. But then the cut wouldn't work good on Bart saying, oh, I want a 10 speed and then Homer reacting like he just said that to him, too. So maybe it would work that the scene would end with the scene ends with him opening back up his newspaper. I feel like it would naturally cut to the headline of what he's reading. You know, funny headline.

But it's like Humpty Dumpty is the cover of it or something. Yeah, I'm looking at it now, it's like Humpty Dumpty or a Pomeranian or something. I don't know what's going on. Yeah, it's so strange. I don't know what it is, but it definitely seems drawn with such an intent that if they didn't want it to be a joke, then it would just be the lines on it.

There wouldn't even be a picture, like, yeah. And you can hear Snowball 2. There's a conspicuous amount of Snowball 2 up front because something is about to happen. If you see a character they never do anything with ever and then they keep appearing, yes, it should be your tip-off here. ["Snowball 2 Theme Song"]

The Simpsons will be right back. Get ready to robot rumble. It's the fight game's toughest robots versus Homer J. Simpson. Woohoo! I mean, beep beep. But how will he survive in a battle of man versus machines? I brought a homemade first aid kit. It's spring loaded for quick access. Oh!

Oh! Oh! Oh! The Simpsons, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh of Talking Simpsons. We work really hard, me and Bob, and we love to chat about the Simpsons with you guys. And that's only possible because of supporters at patreon.com slash talking Simpsons. Did you know that there is an ad free and early version of this podcast you could be listening to? You wouldn't have to hear any commercials like this one and you'd get it early. That's for five bucks a month at patreon.com

Talking Simpsons you'll get an RSS feed after you sign up that'll give you two monthly bonuses One of us covering a new episode of Futurama each month and another of us covering an episode of King of the Hill each month We are up to the Comedy Central years of Futurama and the fourth season of King of the Hill and you can hear all Of those and our whole back catalog of covering everything else from those series plus the critic mission hill And many of our favorite episodes of Batman the animated series all at the ad free $5 level at patreon.com Talking simpsons check it out for yourself But if you want something that'll be a real treat for all the snowball One through fives in your life, then you need to sign up at the premium level at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons.

That's our $10 a month level where you get basically three extra podcasts because we have our premium gigantic What a Cartoon Movie podcast. Me and Bob go over an animated feature film just as in-depth as we do an episode of The Simpsons, often for four, five five or six hours plus It's like three podcasts in one last month We covered Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs the Walt Disney film that started everything in their theatrical division and this month We're covering another film that's about to get a live-action remake released how to train your dragon the 2010 at DreamWorks film Adaptation of the kids book series and we are gonna have a ton of fun talking about that one too and you can only hear that and over six years of

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patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. ["Taking Simpsons Theme Song"] ["Taking Simpsons Theme Song"] Hibbert, for the second time this season, he ends up in the front lawn of the Simpsons with a pet. Actually, yeah. And today I'm a clown. He starts with Sans' little helper.

Yeah, yeah. Boy, he has a bad history with the Simpsons' pets in this season. He's either killing the cat or presenting them with a box full of puppies. And in both cases, they use him as like their rich guy character too. Like in both cases, it depends on Hibbert being like, I'm a bougie guy who does not like that your mutt had sex with my, you know, purebred dog. And in this case, it's all about his Mercedes and that he is a whale that Bart is happy to land.

Like when he sees that it's Mercedes, that's when he throws his bike at it, because he knows he's gonna cha-ching. Yeah, he's mid-tierful goodbye to his bike, and then he sees the Mercedes and just sends it out. What the Marion Barry is not my favorite exclamation there. Yeah, I prefer the cool in the gang joke. Yeah, yeah. Oh, sorry, it was Halle Berry, it's what the Halle Berry. Oh, okay, I heard Marion Berry, my bad. Okay, Halle Berry, that's Halle Berry? Okay, I heard Mary Berry, my bad. Halle Berry, that's current for 2004. Or three, maybe more. Yeah, she just won an Oscar

when this thing was written, probably. Actually, I bet that Oscar joke later in the episode about going over your time is also a Halle Berry reference, isn't it? Yeah, they referenced that in the Halloween episode with Frankenstein. Yeah, they said she looked crazy in that, right? I still don't understand that.

That was weird. But all of her other Oscar speeches really made up for that one. Ha ha ha. Only winning one Oscar, come on, Hallie. Well, hey, she had to do Catwoman, which is one of the best post-Oscar movies you ever seen. Hey, let's get Monster on the screen again.

Monster Two, oh sorry, Monster's Ball Two. I'm thinking, there's so many things called Monster. Monster's Ball Prequel. Well, I was back oh sorry, Monsters Ball Two, I'm thinking, there's so many things called Monster, Monsters Ball Prequel. Well, I was back to back feel like best actress winners were in a film with Monster in the title. And that was in the era of be ugly, get an Oscar for women. That was the joke then anyway. But yeah, let's check in with the Monster Balls character.

What are there as, Monster Balls? That's the porn parody, Henry, come on. I'm adding an S to it like aliens. That's the sequel. Okay, monster. Oh wow, okay. So then it's like a more of an action movie.

Yes, yeah. Okay, okay. This is where this episode back in 2004 really pissed me off because they just hit you out of nowhere with this. I found two old ads for this episode. It is only about the Barton Homer story. This wasn't even sold as a major death happens in this episode. It is only about the Barton Homer story. This wasn't even sold as a major death happens in this episode. Like you would think they'd

promote it like that, wouldn't you? Yeah, I guess it was 2004 and people hated cats and thought it was okay to kill them. We just covered a Futurama in which it was a reflection on the cat renaissance thanks to the internet. Now everybody loves cats. What a change like six years makes in between the airings of those, like like six and a half years. Yeah. This while you mentioned when we talked about a long game poly, like animal violence jokes were very in at the time too.

And killing cats, Al Jean said, I heard it from lots of people out there who make TV shows that you're told you can't kill a dog. Your audience will never forgive you. Kill all the cats you want. People don't care. Now I think that's changed and it's gone to kill all birds. Cats have become darn lovable cats. That's the problem.

They really only kill birds. You gotta hope, you know, maybe in the next season, Stranger Things or Squid Game, that they really make a lovable bird of those. People start to not want to kill birds and things I hope so. I'll be leading the charge Here we say goodbye to the canonical and first and in my opinion only snowball 2 This is a wake-up call now on I'll keep my eyes on the road and off my cool in the gang air freshener

celebrations over boys Freshman, celebration's over, boys. Ah! Meow! Oh! Snowball! Ha ha ha ha ha! Snowball 2, I can't believe you're gone. I wrote this poem for you. It's called Cat Math.

Four paws plus one tail plus nine lives equals one special cat. One special cat minus nine lives equals one sad little girl. Oh. I know how you feel, Lise. No kid wants to outlive their pet. Oh. Oh, sweetie, when I was your age, I lost my guinea pig, Cinnamon. And I thought the pain would never... Oh, Cinnamon!

It should have been me who chewed through that extension cord! There, there. You're both right. Yeah, this was really shocking in 2004, 21 years ago, because this was not advertised up front. And then just to see, oh, they're killing this character who has been part of the family for 15 years. And yes, maybe Snowball 2 has had 10 jokes in that time period, but still, that's a big move to do in kind of a thoughtless way. Now I'll say it's a thoughtless way to do it.

Yeah. I think this was done very thoughtlessly. I think McMullen executes it very well. She actually gives probably more seriousness and grief to Lisa than was on the page. I would think. And I think Yardley plays this well too. I think they built this up bigger than Al Jean wanted to make this. Like I think that if Al Jean's story was that he was like, Oh, I'm taking this from real life. I saw what happened. My poor daughter went through the death of a few cats in a row. Like you get a new cat and then the new cat dies pretty soon after. And that's so heartbreaking.

I get that he sees that as like a good story point, but just have Lisa get a second cat and that one dies. You don't have to sacrifice snowball too for. Or like a hamster or something. It feels like a bold move to make that was not done with much care. And that Snowball 2, I was thinking about this even more during this watch of it because Simpsons roasting on an open fire just hit its 35th anniversary. That's where Snowball 2 is invented. That wonderful cat goes all the way back to the first aired episode of the show and I get that it's supposed to be a shock when cats die in your life sometimes it's just a shock like it goes just like this and you don't expect it and it's hard like I've been through cat deaths it

sucks it's no fun now I like laugh what he said it's unexpected because it's so strange Lisa brings the cat outside in her arms and that's why how it jumps out and this has never happened in the show before like oh we're going outside I'm gonna grab the cat it does give Lisa like a reason even feel kind of guilty too which I don't like they sort of make Lisa to blame for another of the deaths later which also pissed me off but I think this poem is an intentional callback to the poem she reads in start craving dad oh yeah and then the Halloween special I think this poem is an intentional callback to the poem she reads in Stark Graving Dad. Oh yeah, and then in the Halloween special,

Treehouse of War 2, I think, we find out that the mayor's beer-swilling brother Clovis ran over Snowball 1, so both Snowball's done in by vehicular homicide. Hey, though actually, now that you mention that, this is non-canonical, these graves in the backyard, because in Sideshow Bob Roberts, we saw that Snowball One is buried in the cemetery,

and that's when they see the dead pets were voting. Let's say they move the body after that scandal. It upset her too much, they're like, this should have been in our backyard. I think the Stark Raving Dead thing is also, or it's in there because Yardley clearly likes that poem so much that she recreated it live in their Inside the Actor's Studio that they did a couple years before this episode.

It's an episode written by Al Jean, so probably it's special to him too, that poem. This cat math thing is not as over the top as, uh, she died, she died! It's very kitty for Lisa, honestly. Yeah. I mean, the animation on Marge's sudden grief is also, I think, really well done. They're doing this as best they can, but I was in shock that they killed off Snowball on first viewing. And then by the end of the episode, I made my judgment on this choice.

I do like Homer saying, you're both right. Like, that's what he thinks fixes it. And Santa's little helper wearing his like black turtleneck is kind of cute though he should know, oh yeah, I'll never die because I'm the dog. They'll never kill him off. Yeah. He will be SLH1 for the rest of the show's run. Snowball 1 in mind recently, cause in the Simpsons advent calendar, they're the one of the most wonderfully obscure ones they have in there is the angelic Snowball One who's properly white. That's the joke. Oh yeah, and I was looking up Snowball One for this and you do see Snowball One when

a Bart goes to heaven and Bart gets hit by a car with the tire tracks across its body. Right! He sees it from the escalator, doesn't he? He calls him Snowball 1. So after that there's an abrupt cut to Vicious Cycle because we got to get back to the Barden Homer story, the main story, which I think that also did bug me that they not only they kill Snowball 2, but it's for tops two and a half minutes of screen time for the story of the death of Snowball 2. And there's no moment with the cat beforehand really to really establish the bond that Lisa has with Snowball 2. I don't know, I don't sense that strong of a bond. I mean, Lisa loves animals, she's a vegetarian, but there was never a like,

oh Bart is Santa's little helper's best friend and Lisa is Snowball 2's best friend. And that's the dynamic that not really established. Yeah, it's so rare to think of., I mean, most classic snowball two scenes are, you know, get that cat out of the way. Like those are the times you remember of that. Nobody gives a shit about her or same with like, you can pet the cat. Who wants to pet a cat? Well, snowball two is with the models in can heaven right now.

When that show got canceled, it also went to heaven. And so we go to vision cycle Bart. I do like him asking, can I for true for true? Like that's funny. Nice old timey way of speaking out of nowhere. And Bart is so used to the show now that he knows like, no Homer, you're bad at building things. Do not build this bike.

We don't need to do the obvious. You're bad at building things story. Trey Lockerbie That is something that Al Jean brought back in a big way. Homer's poor worksmanship, I guess you would call it. He's not handy. His lack of handiness. Craftsmanship. Mike McDonald It was something that had lost, and I like that as a character trait. Now the character trait of Homer being such a food monster, he sucks beer out of a carpet. No less good trait they bring back, I think.

Him being bad at building stuff, I mean that was one of the best parts of Al Jean's return writing to the show was Le Grille. That's such a great, great, memorable Homer moment. Oh yeah, that one is memed a lot, and whenever anyone builds something that comes out poorly, they will reference that meme. It's always great.

You have the, why doesn't mine look like that? Like, and it's the picture of the thing, and then the crappy version of the thing. It always works on me. You have the resources. I fully recommend letting people who know what they're doing build things for you, because at this point, I don't trust myself. My skill is this, okay? I mean, I've put together my share of IKEA things out of necessity, but I realize that other people can do a much better job than me and I trust them and I

like to let them do their thing. Now, this past holiday week, I enjoyed building some of the gifts I got. My husband got me two like a Lego set and a Evangelion figure model. Those were fun to build. I hadn't built something in a while, but that's not like a tool or something. Like building models and like those and stuff like that. But recently I bought a new TV and guess what guys, it's color, full color.

And I bought it with your Patreon money. It was very big because that's the size of TVs these days. And I thought, even having this box in my house is making me nervous. I got somebody to install the mount and put the TV on it. And I know if I was doing that, I would be shitting my pants every second. Oh yeah, no.

So I saved myself money on pants, number one. But number two, I didn't drop a big TV and ruin it. The $100 you would have spent replacing your pants and underwear and all that, like that can just go straight to hiring of somebody cleaning the floor Yeah, then what he out on paying the cleaner for for that too Like yeah, if you can afford it same with like movers if you can afford it just don't make yeah Yeah, I'm also against making your friends do things or paying your friends less than what you would pay a professional

Just because they are cool with it and they don't want a lot or maybe they just want pizza or whatever, at a certain point in your life you have to say, well pizza is no longer currency. We have to get a contractor involved or something. Yes, now if you can afford it, but admit when you can't afford it and don't claim poverty too. Until my 40s I had to build everything. In fact, we put a lot of stuff in our current place

right now, but now that I've entered my 40s and I'm more comfortable with like letting someone else take the wheel occasionally. But not Homer here. Like Homer's the Donnie Don't when it comes to building a bike. Those bikes seem so complicated. I would never want to build, especially it's like, oh, well, you have to ride it. So if you did a bad job at this, you're the one suffering. Yes. It's not like a chair you don't, they're like, oh, I built that chair kinda bad. Eh, I barely will ever sit in it.

Or that'll be the bad chair that only guests will sit in. Also, when Bart easily dislocates his elbow, I don't think it's a callback, but it's his fault. He fucked it up the first time. It was my sister, my sitter. That's true, I think that was Bart's wrongdoing there. Although maybe the weak bone density is because of Homer's genes. That's true, though the Malk isn't helping either. No. Credit the animators

too, when Homer dumps out a bunch of specific bike pieces they all look real they're not just a gray pile of lines. It looks like all the things you need to build that bike. I think within the two bikes my parents ever bought for me they just came home from the store as a bike. I think within the two bikes my parents ever bought for me, they just came home from the store as a bike. I think even my parents were like, we're not doing this. Yeah. I think we had a pre-made bike too.

The bikes were gifted to us built. I mean, also when I was a little kid, like three, I think I was, or maybe four, my grandfather gave us the gift of a, like a swing set to put in the backyard. And my father, it was like, and your dad will build it for you. It was what my grandfather implied giving it. And it sat in a box until we moved from there. And then it was thrown away. Oh, that stinks.

The promise of a swing set. Well, you have to dig a hole and pour concrete and stuff. It is an undertaking. I get it. As an adult now, I see it as like, oh, the gift of making me work. Thanks, dad, as a gift from my son. Like I get that. But I'm sure a therapist would have a lot to say about whatever this unbuilt swing set represents in my life. But okay. So Homer though, he's not like my dad. He actually does build something just poorly. There's a good gag of Homer being under,

for some reason he put a tarp over himself. Yeah, this is, I'm not gonna say joke theft of course, but they did a joke like this in the movementarian episodes where, I'm sorry, it wasn't that one. It was something is shaped like a bike and a sheet is removed and there's not a bike under it. Oh yeah. It's not hover bikes because the hover bikes

were just the special effects trick under it. Oh, yeah. It's not hover bikes because the hover bikes were just the special effects trick. That's right, yeah. Also the, it's over there, like that joke was done with like the building that a farmer's like, it's over there. Oh right, the establishing shot, right? Yeah, yeah. So it's a mix of jokes they've done before.

This is the problem when you do a TV show for 15 years, you won't remember you did every joke. There's a couple more in this I wrote down. Like, wait, that's like that joke. Bart rides off happily. He's so happy he's flashing his butt to the bullies, which when he says no one does this to Dolph, no one. That felt like a joke of the writers

remembering that the character has a specific name and it's Dolph. Yeah, Dolph is the most underused of all the bullies, so I like that they're giving him a very strong personality here. Though even though he has the most memorable haircut of all the bullies too. Bart with his butt sticking out,

it's funny because we're just weeks away when this aired from the Janet Jackson halftime show that Al Jean in the future will say prevents them from showing butts like they do so much in this episode. I think they're back to butts or they've been back to butts for a while but on all of these commentaries whenever there's a butt they always bring up Janet Jackson and they say

can we do this anymore and Al Jean says no we can't do this anymore. And that's like literally weeks away like the Super Bowl that that happens in is coming up after this like it's crazy how soon it is after this. Cartoon nudity is always funny. It's always funny to see like butts. They're all laughing about it on the commentary. Well, we're rolling into another conservative era in America, so I think butts are gonna be illegal again.

Oh now, yes, yeah. Even though you would think that most of the online Kekistan guys, they love drawing butts. Maybe not on Bart Simpson, but they love drawing some butts. Maybe it's just, there'll be a butt black market for those freaks. Actually, I'm assuming they have a black market for my darker things.

Oh, yes, of course. As they drive away, this is when Nelson does what he also did when he said Ned's position has been usurped, he's stating plot points. That was the opening clip of the episode. You know, Homer with the spring-loaded, homemade first aid kit, kinda obvious where it's going, but they do great animation on his head getting stabbed.

Homer gets so injured in this episode. It's kind of why I came around to liking it. Just the amount of damage that's done to him is impressive. I think on the commentary, they credit McMullen for pushing for like, this needs to be bloody. Like Homer's damage needs to not be cartoony. So Bart's disappointed at the end of the break. And you know, this 10 speed thing too, just to put a final pin in it. It also feels like

another of these moments. And I was just thinking about this because the most recent episode of Simpsons was about expensive wine that they have to make an excuse for our middle class income family to have rich guy problems. And this is the same deal. Like they have to make an excuse for our middle class income family to have rich guy problems. And this is the same deal like they have to make up an excuse, spend all this like story time for the Simpsons to own something a rich guy owns like a fancy 10-speed bike. Just like private box tickets, it's just like destination weddings, all these rich guy problems. I guess a bike, I don't know how much a bike is anymore. They seemed expensive to me when I a new one, but I really think they top out at around $500

Although that is a lot of money for most people but that's different than private security or sky boxes Yeah, yes. Oh god the private security one. Yeah that That is some real rich guy problems So after the break we come back and they are quick to introduce the setting for the rest of the story. We now return to Robot Rumble on the testosterone network. Congratulations to our winning father and son team, who will receive a free appetizer at Fuzzy Zeller's Green Jacket Steakhouse. And you won't be teed off when you come in,

because our steaks are cooked to par-fection. Our leaderboard is filled with scrumptious... or pages. I'm not reading this. Hey, boy, what do you say we build a robot? Face it, you're not the most mechanical guy in the world, but you're good at other things like eating while driving. That's something. And nobody gets madder at the news. First of all, thank you. Secondly, my son thinks I'm an oaf. something Simon Ove. I think the two best jokes are packed into that clip because we have the Harry Shearer announcer bailing on the promotion because he

just it's going on far too long like oh I'm not doing this and then Bart trying to find good qualities in Homer including no one gets madder at the news he goes like first of all thank you. Yes and the character walking away as you're talking like that is such an overdone joke, but they execute it perfectly with a camera move that is so like needless, but it makes it funnier. Like the camera move reveals Bart walked away instead of just a cut. Yeah, I think McMullen says she likes to show characters

leaving the scene, and there's rarely enough time to do that, but she was able to get away with it. Such a great camera move, but also Homer eating while driving, that is a needed fat guy skill. As I learned from many drive homes from the drive through of how many burgers will get home from the drive through, I would ask myself. How deftly can you pull things out of a bag while not killing pedestrians? I think I can get this ketchup packet out.

I bet I can do that too. This is what fat guys who are irresponsible drivers do. I can do that too. This is what fat guys who are irresponsible drivers do. I can I can attest I'm no longer a driver or a fast food eater like that But we have to talk about battle bots So this is a parody of that program and you might not remember how insanely popular this was very briefly because I sure didn't so this aired on Comedy Central yes Comedy, from the year 2000 to 2002. And apparently this was a very popular show for Comedy Central to the point where it was

at one point beating South Park in the ratings. Maybe just a few nights it beat South Park, but still that is something to say about a show like this when you assume like, oh, who's watching this? Well, more people than were watching, you you know early aughts South Park and I remember this really being a big downturn in Comedy Central Henry and I big Comedy Central fans of the late 90s they were showing things like upright citizens brigade and strangers with candy all this original alt comic programming and then you see ads for battle bots and all of that fun creative programming ends and it's moving into this new Spike TV style era

and I don't know what the network is now I think they are the home of new Beavis and Butthead so that's good so they've not completely removed themselves from being the comedy channel. Yeah but it's more just their first-run stuff that is in South Park well it's not first run it's things that were on the Paramount Plus or other streaming services. Yeah, things are being mined from the mountain and being delivered to cable again, like viewers in Butthead.

It's so the other way around, but that's because cable is dying. Yeah, no, the BattleBots was, I tuned in a tiny bit. I think I probably never watched a full episode, but yes, we're both like Waylon Smithers at his darkest time, regular Comedy Central viewers. It It was like it's a sports show on Comedy Central. It's not a comedy sports show I suppose its presentation was a little lighter than it would have been on other networks But I think why the joke on this is that this is on the testosterone network because it felt like a spike TV

Show that was on Comedy Central and it makes more sense for The Simpsons parody to be on a parody of Spike instead of Comedy Central. I'm looking at the schedule right now for Comedy Central, and it appears they are in the middle of a 12-hour Seinfeld block. Wow, well, they spent all that money on Seinfeld reruns. I guess you gotta use it. And really, their programming rotates

between Seinfeld, The Office, and South Park. It's basically the three shows they run. Holy shit, man. Yeah, I mean, Cable's just like dead. They don't do nothing on Cable no more. I was confused at the time with BattleBots because I can't remember what network, but I'd also remember flipping through Cable and seeing reruns, imported reruns of the UK Robot Wars, which started in 98,, British viewers are probably much more familiar with that than battle bots, though they technically one's not a rip off of the other. They both just come from the same core robot wars event that was done in 1994 in the Silicon

Valley back then. And then it robot wars got licensed by the UK production company. So the people who started robot wars in America had to call it BattleBots because they lost the rights to Robot Wars. And pretty soon people learned that the cheat code for BattleBots was having a robot that could flip the other robots and then it was just over.

And soon they implemented a rule that the robot had to be killed via an active weapon. So not just being shoved over or flipped over. My friend who watched more of it than me, I remember him saying, it's like, I had eventually just became like two doorstops trying to flip or flipped over. My friend who watched more of it than me, I remember him saying, it's like, I had eventually just became like two doorstops trying to flip each other over. And yeah, Comedy Central,

in their early promotion of the show, they were being very defensive because that's back when cable networks needed an identity. They're saying, well, why would you have this show on Comedy Central? And they're saying, oh, it's a parody without being a parody. Weirdly enough, it was Carmen Electra

was the anchor for BattleBots. Wow, that seems almost out of their price range for her, honestly. I hate to say, Carmen Electra is too good for her. I don't know, I think the price dropped dramatically. Okay, you're right. After 9-11, Carmen Electra's, the stock's lowered, isn't it? Yeah.

Not to have anything to do with 9-11, I'm just using it as a- No, she planned the entire thing and we're still waiting for justice. That's what the committee was not telling us. I was shocked to learn BattleBots has had a resurgence since 2015 and is still regular programming on Discovery Channel or well, Discovery,

I think it's just called. The thing that owns Warner and makes everything bad. No, BattleBots is part of it. Its success on Discovery fueled Discovery's ability to buy Warner Brothers and ruin it. I did watch a good YouTube essay by the channel FilmJoy that gave a nice little history on BattleBots and why somebody loves BattleBots. They make a good case, the FilmJoy essayist, because they mentioned that the coolest thing is people build this

thing and then another person built the thing who built the thing better and because they're tournaments in between matches you then have to fix your robot so it is also a test of like okay how quickly can you rebuild your robot and put it back together. You know I was annoyed by this show but I guess I didn't know how good I had it because my response was, oh, this new original programming sucks. Well, 20 years later, there is no new original programming. You're right. They have no budget for nothing.

Also, the Spike network, which is what the Testosterone network is parroting, it was fairly new then because it was the Nashville network, then the National network, then TNN. And then in summer of 2003 it became Spike, and I remembered it stopped being Spike, and I was like, oh, and then it went away, right? No, it became the Paramount network, which was the home to Yellowstone, and so it was one of the most successful channels around.

Wow, wow, I didn't know it made that evolution. Well, going back to our previous part of this conversation, I will say they have money for original programming, but they realize any rerun of Seinfeld we put on will get ten times the ratings that any new show would get. So just go with the least resistance option. One of the many reasons creativity is dying in art, it's not that it, this is why I look back at Along Came Polly is like, boy, we didn't know how good we had at things for a piece of junk like that, a totally disposable rom-com. To make

an original film like A Long Came Polly seems almost impossible now. It's theatrically released too. It would have to be some Amazon movie or Apple, not even Apple TV Plus, Amazon I'm guessing. And it would still star Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston at their current ages instead of young actors. And suddenly your Netflix bill will increase in price because they have to pay for these stars. I heard a comedian, I forget who,

had this great observation about how they keep making romantic comedies with the romantic comedy stars of the 90s. So it's actors in their 50s or early 60s, but they're still telling the same kind of stories they told back then, but they just look like losers. It's like, you don't have your shit together in your 50s? It is strange, I guess. Yeah, we're going to cover something very... Actually, I'm going to put a pin

in that and we'll talk about it on Talky Futurama this month, so stay tuned. If you're not on the Patreon, get on that Patreon. Well, hey, speaking of current films, I notice that McMullen credits a lot of the guys on the animation team for making the robot fighting look really good. And the one name she shouts out is Brad Abelson for boarding a lot of the robot fighting scenes. And boy, he'll be a superstar. Abelson is a border on Simpsons from 1996 to 2015. And when he moves over to illumination, he moves up big time. He was the co-director of Minions to the Rise of Gru. And soon he will be the co-director of Minions 2, The Rise of Gru, and soon he will be the co-director of Shrek 5.

Oh, we're going back to Shrek. I did not know this until reading the news about it, but that Shrek gets to come back because while technically DreamWorks is separate from Illumination, both are owned by Universal. And so they are making Illumination basically be like in charge of Shrek 5. Like Chris Melodandri, he's running Shrek 5. Illumination is in charge of DreamWorks Animation. It's a horrible time.

It's a horrible, horrible time. Well, yeah, not a fan. Good job, Brad. That Puss in Boots' last wish was better than the other Shrek movies. I guess maybe Illumination can bring up a D- series to a C-plus or a B-minus? You know personally I'm waiting for the next Spider-Man animated movie coming in 2029. Maybe they're waiting until whoever is president after this current administration. If they make it four more times before releasing it I think it'll be good. You will find the victims

of this crunch all around you in Vancouver I, too. Look for very tired people holding drawing tablets. Though honestly, that's probably every animator on every project in Vancouver, actually. You know, this Harry and Hank combo of guys, I do kind of wish they were just Bill and Marty, but I have to say, Harry sure feels more animated here than he has in a while. Yeah, Hank is doing his Brockmeyer voice,

and Harry's doing just the classic announcer, and I like their interplay. I love that he is so sick of Fuzzy Zellers, like, I can't read all of these golf puns. He gives up on it. So Homer is sad that Bart thinks he's an oaf, and we then cut back to Lisa and Marge, and we find a new cat for Lisa. Mom, I'm not sure I'm ready for a new cat. When bad things happen to cute children, says that a new pet will pull you out of your sorrow cycle.

That book doesn't know how I feel. Oh, it's very wise. It's written by a rabbi who surfs. All right, I'll look. Too fluffy, too Siameseiamese to needy to stuck up Infected I clearly a skunk Me yeah Welcome to the family snowball three

I'm always confused when I'm reminded that when bad things happen to good people isn't just like an aphorism people say but it's the title Of a best-selling book. Yeah, it's sort of like I'm Okay, You're Okay, one of those very popular self-help books that aren't really referenced anymore. And written by a rabbi, just like the joke Marge is making. I'm also thinking of everything I needed to know I learned in kindergarten, I think that's the name of one of the books too.

Yeah, right. Now, is The Five People We Meet in Heaven, is this also just becoming an aphorism and not the name of a dumb book? I think we've stopped saying that. I hope so. I hope so. Or Chicken Soup for the Soul.

I feel like people still throw out that one. Well, they're a giant corporation now that owns, I think, Hallmark or something like that. Yeah, actually, it's surprising that Rabbi Harold Kushner didn't just make when bad things happen to good children, good mothers, good fathers, like just make it a whole system. Maybe he actually wanted to help people and didn't want to build a business on rewriting the same book over and over. He did leave behind his rabbinical work to just become a full-time author I read.

And that to tell you his politics, he spoke at Ronald Reagan's funeral the same year as this episode. So just to let you know where it is that he only passed away in 2023. So a recent death. March is just impressed that it's a rabbi who serves that's fun and so we got snowball three I'm sure it's gonna be great now do you think they designed it to look like Lisa it kind of looks like Lisa. Yeah it's like one cat looks like Lisa one cat looks like Bart and Laura McMullin does not answer the question why does the cat look like Bart. It definitely seems with

intentionality but she doesn't comment on it. I wish she did, because it definitely feels like these represent the two of them. I think they're just having fun with the designs and they got away with making them look like the characters. And now Homer is back to building robots, which he already has done before. In Homer the Moe, he half finished it

in the classic Father, Give Me Lens. Oh yeah, and then in Itchy and Scratchy Land, he learned why his robots never worked. That's right, and he should ask for Lisa's help on this because she built Linguo. What we're saying is the Simpsons built a lot of robots. Yeah, Homer especially has an interest in building robots. I think there are a few lines in The Simpsons

that sound more like a Dana Gouldism than Father Give Me Legs. It's dark and it's about an abusive father-son relationship. The father throws his son out of the garage and makes him crawl away. And also as Homer's leaning over his buttcrack's sticking out, there are so many buttcracks in this episode. And this scene is full of lots of really good shadows. Extra amount of work and extra layer of detail, but it pays off, I think. And when he's smashing all the pieces together too, like it's like, oh, that is some real Simpson Sakuga as well. I put quotes on that

listener just so you know, I don't just say that. It means good animation. Yes. And Homer smashes it around and it's funny, they deny you the moment of Homer having his aha of like it just cuts to the robot being presented to Bart later yeah we're doing joke police again another similar thing I hate doing this by the way but I'm haunted with the knowledge of other episodes the Abe giving Homer advice is very much like the advice he gave Homer on his wedding day that's right oh you know what I fucked up. He did have his aha moment. What am I saying here? Yeah. Duh. Sorry. But you're right.

If you can't build a robot, be a robot. That just is the time travel instruction joke even presented in the same like memory bubble. Obviously the old one was funnier because Abe is dressed in a tuxedo because the context is him at Homer's wedding. And it's time travel instructions instead of just becoming a robot. But Bart wakes up the next morning and when he stomps on the ground it doesn't fall apart, he can't believe it.

And when he runs out of the room to tell Milhouse, you see a shadow in the doorway. That's another like, oh, you would never see that in an Anon McMullen episode in 15. One thing that is not commented upon Ever in the episode. It's a visual gag the buttons on the remote are Oreos That had to be a deleted joke, right? I mean, it's a great design choice if it wasn't a deleted joke But yeah, what they're so clearly or yeah, I expected Homer to eat one of them at some point But no it just Homer being very food focused you would think Homer is I mean he's such a monster that he's sucking beer out of the shag

that you would think that he would have also eaten the thing. Also, it's funny to look up that this episode aired four months before South Park's Osomo episode. That was a good one, that was a good one. I looked into it, it was even written like, it was a three days to air episode two they say which is Ridiculous that is not a way to make a TV show. No. No, I like the design of Homer's robot though It's a mailbox with a tricycle built into it so we can wheel around and basically like TV rabbit ears on top

And he just has a wooden mallet that he swings around with his little tube arms There's Robbie the robot style tube arms, I guess, or no, the robot from Lost in Space. It was not Robbie. I always make that mistake. As Bart runs away, he's in love with his new robot, the viewer learns the truth. Cool.

Now stop. Smash this six pack. Oh, awesome. I gotta tell Mule House. Whoa! Smash this six pack. Pfft. Ha ha ha! Oh, awesome, I gotta tell Mule House. Oh, the beer's gone. I'll have to suck it out of the shag. You needed a listener to hear every sad suck.

Sad shag sucking. That's a good tongue twister. He takes a second to look around, to feel self-conscious about it, then gets back to it. I guess I called it a food monster thing, but it is more of Homer the drunk. Yeah, alcoholism. So when we come back from the break, this is where Lisa is faced with death for a second time. You plop the cat food down, you toss the tin can out, you drop the worm pills in and you stir it all about.

You add a lot of lovin' and you serve it to your cat. That's what it's all a- Snowball 3. Oh! Ah! Oh, Lisa. Honey, it's okay. You're a Buddhist. So you know your cats are now reincarnated as a higher form of life.

Like a dog or a snowman. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. We gotta go fight some robots. Even Bart thinks this B-plot is lackluster. Yeah, Bart's like, hey, enough of this story. I want to get to my story. Story viewers. The Homer and Bart stuff.

There will be robot battles. The visual of Lisa seeing her drowned cat is so, like, it hurts. It's a painful thing. I mean, Lisa can't blame herself for this one, but if a cat's gonna drown like that so easily, just from, like, plopping into the fishbowl this one, but if a cat's gonna drown like that so easily, just from like plopping into the fish bowl that much, like the cat wasn't long for this one. No, no, it wasn't designed to stay around for that long.

It's also nice that Marge tries to comfort Lisa with a thing Marge does not believe in, which is Buddhism. I'll compliment the Snowball 2 thing in that they at least make it into a Marge and Lisa story instead of just Lisa suffering alone. It turns into Marge dealing with Lisa while Homer deals with Bart. It's a good mirroring. I'll give it that.

Yeah, yeah. They leave Snowball 3 in its grave and they head back to the A story. The stadium and layout of it really looks like BattleBots 2. They did a good job. Yeah, if you were around for BattleBots, the parody is obvious. Homer sneaks away. He's not there at the same time. It feels like, I mean it gets even more intentional, but this is like a Superman plot. Clark Kent's never around when Superman is, what's the deal?

Homer uses the excuse of an old army buddy coming to town, which is a good joke about notoriously bad Superman plots. Yeah, like from the 60s, when everybody had been to World War II. Right. That's how somebody had an old army buddy. Or my old drill sergeant they used for a similar-ish joke. Again, I am now self-conscious of joke policing everything in this. Bart then gives him a culturally insensitive nickname and the first battle begins. Dear Bart.

I'd love to be with you, but I just remembered an old army buddy has come to town. We'll meet you later. Love, Dad. Well, I wish Homer was here. But don't worry, I've got a name all picked out for you. Chief Nakahomer, let's win this one for Dad. Blip-blop-blip-blop, blip-blip-blip-blip-blop. In this corner, operated by Frank Murray and little Frankie jr. Buzzkill. And

in this corner the challenger chief knock-a-homer. There's no love lost between these emotionless devices. Robot Trumbo. We get a little Matrix music there. Yeah, yeah and I guess Bart chose Robot Drumbo! We get a little Matrix music there. Yeah, yeah, and I guess Bart chose a very insensitive name and design for this robot. That was already fully built and didn't really need any accessories. Once they got there, that's when he pulls out the headdress. He didn't run it by Homer either. I do want to point out the old Army Buddy thing. I was thinking, didn't they do a joke like that recently and yes

It was in Bart versus Lisa versus the third grade where Homer sees the news about Bart and Lisa being in the same grade He changed the channel and he goes an old army buddy is visiting Mannix Right, so this is a running joke. I want to say Dana Gould if it's a Mannix reference Mannix I have to give it to Dana Gould. Yes We're blaming everything on Dana Gould. Or crediting as they also say. The fight begins with some really great animation on it. The nerds drawing this did a great job and yes Homer gets really bloody when that first cut of the buzz saw leaves like a gaping gash in his like bicep I was like oh this is pretty harsh. Yeah yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was violence. I'm not used to seeing on the show.

It's like sort of like that scene where the badger rips off his skin. Yes. Yeah. His organs functioning. It's sort of almost on that level. Though in this case, he actually needs to bandage himself up after the scene, instead of pulling his shirt down. He's fine. Homer after saying the pain is love to bleed is to care. We then see Homer turns things around, grabs the saw blade and smashes it into his opponent, leading them to say killing him softly with his saw,

which is a parody of the, well, we grew up with the famous Lauren Hill cover of it in 96. Yeah, that's the one I'm familiar with. Though Roberta Flack made it famous, killing me softly with his song. After all this big, big action without many voice clips in it,

we then cut back to Lisa making a new friend in Coltrane, who she picks it, instead of naming it Snowball Four, she just picks it because it's named after a jazz composer, or a composer, performer, jazz musician, that's the word. Jazz man. Jazz man. Oh, that's named after a jazz composer or a composer performer, jazz musician. That's the word. Jazz man. Jazz man. Oh, that's right. A jazz man. Go down to the pound, get him a new jazz man. You know what? That's another thing. This also is like, oh, let's have Lisa deal with grief. And it's like, you did that.

You did that with with killing off the bleeding gums. Well, Lisa always has to suffer. It's true. Life is suffering, but only for Lisa. Marge doesn't approve of it. And it's funny that Marge doesn't want just Coltrane. She wants it to be a cute parody name, like turn Boz Skaggs into Paws of Skaggs. I like it. What do you feel like Bob with pet names?

Like you have a straightforward name for your pet, it's inspired by something. Yeah, I guess it was just so my parrot's name is Louie and when I bought him 23 years ago, the game Animal Crossing was new and we were looking through the strategy guide, like what's a cute animal name and we landed on Louie and that's why he's Louie. But then Louie is also feels very appropriate for a bird. I don't need any very specific references if your pet is named something that existed in 2017 and was very popular. I don't want to know when your dog is going something that existed in 2017 and was very popular, I don't wanna know when your dog is gonna die,

in other words. Like, if they named it, if they named the dog like Pommy Maybe, then that dog is checking out very soon. When we got cats when I was 13 or 14, the cat we told to just give them straightforward names, so we went with just like Jack and Josh, those were the names, but. I like when a pet has a human's name like Steven or Robert.

If I'd had my way then, and you know what, I love my cat Jack, but I'd have called him Lunchbox because that was something that Jay called Silent Bob in Mallrats. It was very important to me then. Very cute. Yeah, I'm recalling this now. A friend of mine in like 1994 had a dog named Doogie Bowser. And you know when that dog was purchased, like 1990. So by 1994, the Doogie Howser reference was not really getting the attention it once did. I do like an old dog with a dated name. That's always a funny joke. Though this time after Lisa hears about

what her original name was supposed to be, Bartzilla, no, Bartina. Bartina. No, actually, if I buy a dog, I'm naming it Better Call Saul, season three. Ha ha ha ha. People will think it's much older then. Mm-hmm.

This is where Lisa has another cat very briefly. Coltrane, would you like to hear some music written by your namesake? Coltrane! Coltrane, you are with us only briefly, but we'll always have the ride home from the shelter. And, um, I guess that's it. Amen. And Lord, if you think I'm making lemon bars for your bake sale Sunday,

you better stop killing our cats. Mom, I'm not sure God responds to threats and intimidation. It's the only way to talk to bullies. And hey, you know what? God listened to her because Lisa's Next Path is an unkillable one. I like Marge's stance on God. We had that episode recently where Homer said, no Marge, God's cool. And Marge goes, I'm not so sure he is. Yeah, that was a good one. I do hate that Lisa indirectly kills him. Like she scares

it enough with her saxophone that it jumps out the window and dies immediately. And they say on the commentary, there was an animatic or board of like, you saw the cat hit the ground or you saw it outside the window. I'm glad in general, I'm glad there's a distance from cat violence in this. Yeah, you hear the noises, you see the action leading up to it. You don't need to see a cat body. Though I hate that they make Lisa's kind of responsible for it. Like that's a bummer. And they also said they, I think at some point in this episode, there was a

montage of more cats dying too. Yeah, there were going to be a lot more cats that died at the hands of Lisa, but they decided what torturing her this much is going to be fine. And there is a visual joke with the gravestones. It's really hard to render in this animation style in that every headstone gets less and less expensive. So when Coltrane is buried, the headstone is made of corrugated cardboard. Oh, that's good. I miss that.

I noticed that, you know, in the first one they all wore their Sunday best and dressed up. In the second one, Bart is, you know, now wearing his jacket. Homer didn't put on a tie. This time it's just Marge and Lisa and they didn't even dress up for it. The grave markers are a great visual joke too. Also, there's a very weird fade to dinner after this. Yeah.

Something tells me something was cut. Yeah. There's so many weird quick fades that when something is edited, not in the Simpsons house style, it tells you there was a strong cut, which they must have thought these jokes weren't even funny because they're again not on the DVD. We're talking about little animation touches. There's big flourishes, there's really cool action scenes, but one little thing I noticed is that at the table when Abe stands up, he knocks over his glass of water, which is just

like, oh, it's a fun little detail that shows how disruptive he's being that I'm not sure was in the script. That is great. I noticed too that Lisa starts the scene sad before she asks Homer about all of his bandages, which that I feel like a lesser episode wouldn't care to keep Lisa's emotional state from the previous scene. They would just act like it's a fresh scene for Lisa and she just asked that without looking sad. Yeah because the scene's not even about the cats they're going back to the robot stuff.

Furious bug bites and wounds now stop interrupting your brother that's another good one. Actually I clipped it out because this is some good Abe nonsense I like this. Dad what are all those cuts? Various bug bites and wounds. Now stop interrupting your brother. In my day, mechanical men had funnel hats and showed respect. Then it all changed when they got to vote and started tinkering with our memories. I do like Abe's recollection of robots getting the right to vote, the civil rights movement for robots. I guess in a roundabout way referencing iRobots.

Yeah, yeah, you're right, which is the title inspiration for this episode too, which Asimov parodies, or not parodies, Asimov adaptations were very hot in the early aughts. He wrote a lot of books, some of them not so good. Though I do miss funnels as hats on robots. Those are fun. And hey, this was the year of iRobot, correct? This was the year of the Will Smith film. That's right, where Alan Tudyk plays him, the robot, and the only other thing I remember about it is his vintage converse in the movie, I believe, that Will Smith wears. I remember the line where he sneezes and he says, sorry, I'm allergic to bullshit. Oh, okay. And everyone in the audience went, oh! It's funny I have more

memories of seeing Bicentennial Man than I do of iRobot. Same movie I guess. And I kept in that little music there because this is the return of watching Scotty Grove to the show. Yeah I mean we're putting on our joke police hats again, as we often do, and I hate to do this, guys, but you did a montage with this song, and it's not a song like Bad to the Bone, or Taking Care of Business, or whatever. It's not a song that's just montage friendly

that you can use over and over again. This is so specific that most people have only heard it in Saturdays of Thunder. It's the only place I heard of it was from Saturdays of Thunder, which Gene admits, he's like, we did use it before on the commentary, he says it, in Saturdays of thunder. It's the only place I heard of it was from Saturdays of thunder, which Jean admits he's like, we did use it before on the commentary says it, but you know what I'm going to upgrade from joke police to joke corridor here. As I do an autopsy, this joke is dead.

Well, it's because I was like, okay, how did the timing on this work? Because on the commentary for Saturdays of Thunder, Al Jean is present for it. That is on the season three DVD set that released August of 2003. So one can assume in the fuzzy timeline, probably it was recorded at least six months before that, like start of 03, you could say. And this episode airing at the start of 04 likely I would bet it was written in its early production 15 so I would bet March or April so what I'm saying is I do think they did that commentary for Saturdays of Thunder Al Jean heard that song again and remembered it was a joke and wanted

to use it again yeah I was looking it up actually the season 2 DVDs came out in 2002 so Saturdays of Thunder is 3 right oh it's. Yeah, I was looking it up. Actually the season two DVDs came out in 2002. So Saturday's is thunder is three, right? Oh, it's three. Uh, yeah, no, I apologize. Yeah, it is three. So yeah, 2003. Okay. That's why I'm thinking that they would have recorded.

I mean, there's not time markers on all the commentary, so they could have recorded it even earlier than that. But I do think they recorded that commentary within six months. Yeah tops a year of writing this script I can see the connection there is thinking oh, this is a fun song and so cheesy and only we've used it Let's do it again. Yeah, sorry centers of thunder has such season two vibes that I forget that it's the season three episode And remember watching it and then right afterwards comes the black or white video, right? Yes It feels too late for that. And I also think this song must have come in to complete my joke autopsy.

It must have been at script level or at the very least animatic level because Homer references it with lip sync to non-ADR dialogue later in the episode. They must have written it into the script that watching Scottie Groves used. Though they play more of it than they did in Saturdays of Thunder.

So if you never listen to this song anywhere outside of Simpsons episodes, you get to hear more of it this time. And this montage gives us the return of Jessica Lovejoy. I looked at her appearances. She was in the background of a shot in Summer of 4 Foot 2, and then in Gene's era, she's brought back for just being a background character,

and this is the most active she is playing in the story since Bart's girlfriend in season six. That's nice. I couldn't recall the last time she'd even like visually appeared. Obviously they didn't get Meryl Streep back for this. It feels to me like the script said, Reverend Lovejoy has a robot

and it's a priest robot with a bunch of arms. And then somebody remembered on the animation side, Hey, Jessica Lovejoy could do this, is the parent-child thing, which from what I saw up to this day in BattleBots, a lot of BattleBots is a parent and child operation. How sweet. And the Ralph joke is great because it allows Homer to be shot at with a gun

from the Ralph-a-cop, but then Homer retaliates by shooting Ralph over and over in the face, a picture of him. But it's the one time you'll see Homer shoot Ralph in the face with a gun. It is like execution style. He basically stands on his neck and shoots in the face of Putz. As they describe it, a mailbox shooter boy. We get off of the field after that montage, and repairing in between rounds, very important in BattleBots, though it's crazy that he never opens up the robot until the final fight.

Yes, no questions before that. And Homer says that he's really needed the nuclear plank. Fine, a good one, but not as good as a nuclear pan or tanner tant was. Or tanner plant? That's what he called it. And then I also did laugh, Homer gives a knowing wink to the audience, but it's actually because his eye is's what he called it. And then, I also did laugh, Homer gives a knowing wink to the audience, but it's actually because his eye is full of metal in it. Yes, he's just like riddled with shrapnel too, which sounds very painful.

And they then get to meet their opponents, which I feel like they shouldn't be surprised by this, they should have known who their opponents were gonna be, that they are the reigning champions. Dad, it was so great. Nakahoma really took a pounding, but then he won. Oh. That's a rough part.

Daddy can't handle so much love right now. This robot's the greatest thing you've ever done for me. I can't believe you've never seen him fight. Well, I've been busy, son. You really need me over at the nuclear plank. Well, the next match is Saturday. Can you come then? I don't think so, son. But on the other hand, I may be closer than you think.

Oh, so much metal in my eye. Ladies and gentlemen... Ah, who am I kidding? Just gentlemen. Join us next week for our title vote when knock-a-homer will try to unseat five-time defending champion Smash is Clay, aka Kil Hamadayee. I do like that they respect the robot's Muslim name as well. They shouldn't be using his old name at all, but yeah they respect the conversion to Islam that has happened. For this robot that is 95% N209 for photocop.

Unfortunately when the announcer says, oh who am I kidding, just gentlemen, we see women in the background. Ooh, a rare goof from McMullen's team. I expect them to not draw women into the background. Yeah, then Homer says he has his recurring nightmare from reacting to this and that's where it's, he gets cut off on the Oscar stage

and killed by a robot for going too long. And part of his recurring nightmare is being married to Angelica Houston. He gives her credit for winning the Oscar, like we did it Angie. And you know what, Angelica Houston has stayed relevant to this day and he can still dream of that.

Then, I do like him immediately being in the Inmemoriams. That's cute, but they are so back to doing cutaway jokes like this. Family Guy's gone, cutaway time resumes. They picked up the torch, yeah. The joke is great where he's killed and then immediately he leads off the Inmemoriam segments. I like McMullen, at least we don't know

why the cats look like Bart and Lisa, but we do know they intentionally drew Professor Frank's son to look like a clone of him and mirror his movements even as an unofficial clone storyline they put in there. Yeah this is the son that we saw in Brother Can You Spare Two Dimes? Right. My wife is going to kill me. That leads me to create the headcanon that obviously his child died when he did that and then he cloned a new one and this is the cloned child. Or hey they tried again. Sure I

mean McMullen definitely presupposes Frank would never have sex thus could not procreate so that's why this is a clone of him and not with any spouse. I guess we don't get a good look at that baby in the plane though. Yeah well it's good we didn't get attached to him because again, he never appeared again. So he must have died don't I get too attached? So they come back from that with an incredible shot of a t-800 running in an Ed 209 and being smashed Yeah, if you ever wanted to see Robocop versus Terminator, you're seeing it here The Ed 209 robot eats the Terminator and poops it out as a trophy.

And you can tell he's pushing that trophy out too. They make sure it is a bowel movement, you're seeing there. A lot of jokes. We see the tapes that Homer and Bart are reviewing, all of the enemies that Smash's Clay has fought, including Jersey Joe, Wall Switch, the Grim Beeper, Circuit Ray Leonard, and Bender. I've noticed they're referencing Futurama a lot as it's going off the air. Now that it can't hurt them anymore, they can mock Bender, or reference him.

Well, actually, at this time, Bill Odenkirk has now joined the Simpsons, so they've got more Futurama staff in the office, too. I think it was Matt Groening's way of reminding people of Futurama when they no longer had access to it. Though, hey, those DVD sales are already going pretty strong by January of 2004.

Probably a lot of people got them for Christmas gifts. And I do love how Bart says, "'Sure, he looks tough, "'but he's never faced a wooden mallet.'" They then have the bullies, well, they do knock first, so they don't break into their home, but they just walk in the door. Yeah, and they immediately see,

Homer is about to tell Bart the truth, and the bullies see the robot. Yeah, and they immediately see Homer is about to tell Bart the truth and the bullies see the robot and say hey there it is the thing that makes us respect Bart. And I love all the bullies like that these terrifying bullies all looking up to Homer with respect like they're in awe of Homer and the stories he's gonna tell. Yeah they're sitting in a very polite half circle around him as they're waiting to hear like well how'd you improve the robot? And then Homer trusts these bullies so much that he wants them to raise Bart when he's dead. Yeah, Bart can get along with Gertie's son, I think they can sleep

in the same drawer. You know, he's going to have to get a bigger shelf for that drawer to fit in Bart. Lisa has not only had to bury a bunch of cats, but also she gets told that a bunch of cats hate her now. They think they've she will kill them. Yeah, there's not even a joke I wish there was a joke here because she shows up the ladies like oh some these cats would rather risk their lives in the Back room than go home with you and the cats are just hissing and clawing at her So I wish there was just something funny there because it's just pure misery for Lisa more torture Yeah, I suppose this isn't so much a belief, but you know what I'm gonna use this as an excuse to play the jingle

so much a belief, but you know what, I'm going to use this as an excuse to play the jingle. Take that, Lisa's beliefs. Yes, I guess Lisa believed that cats like her and it turns out no, they don't. Animals instinctively turn on her like she's a vampire. That she could take care of animals instead of killing them. Yeah, that was her belief. So we then do another thing Gene really was getting back into, which is resetting the stakes of an episode with a bedroom scene of Marge and Homer. I like it. It's them comparing notes on how they're parenting. Hey, hey, these cats would rather take their chances in the back room than go home with you. My job was to keep Lisa's hope alive, but instead she's really depressed.

You think you got problems? Look what I just pulled out of my arm. That's what we in the business call a biggie. Business? What business? The business of being a dad. Can you hand me that magnet? Sure.

Can you do my back? That thing, how did that fit in his arm? That thing, that biggie. Yeah, just what's going on with Homer's shrapnel situation seems like the most painful part of this episode. Especially, it's in his eyes, it's underneath his skin. As the metal is leaving his body, it's leaving exit wounds. He should be covered in blood at all times really.

But yeah, I like that Marge meanwhile has a very realistic problem of like, I wanted to comfort Lisa and it only makes her sadder. And then over is like, well, I'm covered in metal. Yes, I've got my own problems. So here we go. Yes, the reason you all are listening. This scene, I seriously, I don't have too many strong

memories of watching this episode live, except for this bit. When this scene began and then ended, it left a memorable anger in me. Yeah, and now especially we have learned to love the principal and the popper and realize it's a well-written episode that's very emotional, thoughtfully done, and really helps establish

the character's skinner. And it comes from a place of love and a case of really knowing the character. And for them to just piss on it here is annoying, especially because the show has committed so many more grievous sins in its lifetime. If you consider Principal and the Popper a sin, in the seven years that have passed between that episode and this one, so many worse things have happened. We've gone over them on this podcast, but it just feels unfair, especially because

they're ostensibly doing the same thing, but in a less thoughtful way, and then making fun of the thing that was done before by people who aren't in the room. Yeah, yeah, nobody who's there anymore. Making fun of it, attacking it like it's, oh God. I mean, already I was bothered seeing this. The resolution of it being that...

You know what, I'll play the clip first and then I can explain more how I felt then too. He is a bad boy! Look, you don't want to get involved with a girl like me. My cats have a nasty habit of waking up dead. Now go. Cough me out of your life like a bad furball. You're not hurt! You're a good luck kitty! Alright, old Gil's gotta collect big from insurance. I'll be eating food tonight. Da da da da da da da da da. I'm keeping you. You're Snowball 5.

But to save money on a new dish, we'll just call you Snowball 2 and pretend this whole thing never happened. That's really a cheat, isn't it? I guess you're right, Principal Temzarian. I'll just be moving along, Lisa. Snowball 2. What saves it is that there's another explosion off screen. I always forget that Gil was killed twice. Yeah, and Gil's hot cha-chai with his leg on fire. It gives a good chuckle. And I'll also say that I like that Snowball 2, who had its original origin was, they got a cat you never heard of the Simpsons having in the shorts, died off screen, and they got

another cat and named it Snowball 2. It's all off screen. I like that Snowball 2-2 is delivered by Crazy Cat Lady, like in a biblical sense even. She comes over the hill as like a silhouette, you think it might be an angel, but no, she's just the woman covered in cats. And yeah, this feels disingenuous to me, this reading of that episode.

Isn't that kind of a cheat? The ending of the episode was a joke about the need to return to the status quo for any animated show at that time, any sitcom at that time. So it's not like they were being lazy. They were saying, we made this big move and we can no longer acknowledge it because of the format of The Simpsons.

It just feels like an intentionally bad reading of that episode, especially the ending. Also, I feel like Skinner should tip off the cops to this and get Lisa tortured because that's the punishment for ever bringing it up again. That is true. She could be subject to torture in the future. Skinner's being pretty nice to let that go

and not turn her in for it. I hated that so much then because like, I was not a hater of the Tamsarian episode and also definitely by early 2004 I do think the it's the worst episode discourse had metastasized in the online Simpsons community. Yeah yeah when I hear that now and I know most people don't have their own Simpsons podcast so I understand how opinions can differ when I hear that opinion now I'm like what century are we in who's president right now do you honestly think that is still the worst

episode or that's when things got bad Do you honestly think that is still the worst episode? Or that's when things got bad? I just, I understand when you hear the premise of the episode, you think like, well, that's terrible. The character I love has been someone else the entire time. It's like, no, that episode shows why he is more skinner than he's ever been. Yes, yeah, it's about why he's a great skinner

and it devotes the entire episode to it. And it's about TV and it's so fully thought out about like TV storytelling they work so hard on it and to have a like two minute bees plot of a Simpsons episode speed through a much worse version of that all to end up at the same ending of oh we're just gonna call you snowball to and pretend this never happened. Like, fuck that. And when you tell the audience the show hates this episode,

that then makes the fans think like, oh, then I guess it was really bad, wasn't it? Yeah, I think it's generally understood now that the worst decision they made was the Mod Flanders thing. It was a bad idea done because of internal politics, and also the episode wasn't really about that. They tried to get Ned out and dating in Act 3 and every element of it was completely mishandled. It was mean-spirited, not the way to do things. But I never hear them

acknowledge it as a mistake. I just hear Al Jean saying, if there was a way to bring Mod back, we would. So it's tacitly admitting that that was not the best way to do things, but it's never viewed in the same regard as Armand Tamsarian. And I think it is, if you consider Armand Tamsarian bad, the mod thing should be a thousand times worse. They wipe her off the map and then a minute later you see Ned's giant dick. Yes. And Mike Scully, we asked him about it a million years ago when we did get to interview him and he definitely expressed regret about it. But I also think they have respect for their coworkers on that episode to not call it out as an officially bad episode

on the show. I understand being diplomatic. And yes, you're right, Henry. We did talk to Mike Scully. We did apologize for being mean about him online for a while. And I don't know the exact words. I didn't look up that interview. But he said, yeah, we shouldn't have done that or something. He expressing regret about the decisions behind

that episode. But you're right. The show would never call it a bad episode in the show. Like I, or I don't think so. Maybe they have. And then boy, oh boy, did I get mad all over again with re-listening this comment. Nobody gets madder at commentaries. First of all, thank you. In fact, I got so mad at it that I did a thing I never do when collecting clips for episodes, I think it's a matter of commentaries. It's true. First of all, thank you. In fact, I got so mad at it that I did a thing I never do when collecting clips for episodes, which is I clipped out to the commentary discussion. Yes. Because it's a whole minute on the record of them saying what they really feel about

it. We've got the dirt on these creeps. And it's all thanks to Seppenwall. I'm glad Seppenwall's there. He asked the difficult question question and you know what? Credit to them, they kept this on the record. They could have cut this whole thing out of it because it's not exactly nice.

And give a listen here. You can tell Al Jean realize he doesn't want to be this mean on a recording. I got to ask the Armintanzarian joke that's coming up here. Who came up with that? And in general, what is sort of the feeling about Armin Tanzarian in hindsight? That is me to put the joke in.

Yeah, I think I'll, yeah. Well, I'll just say, I wasn't running the show the year that Armin Tanzarian episode aired. And it was a great year for the show, but I never got that, the I'm in Tamzarian thing. I remember saying, what the hell is this? And being assured by all the writers, no, it's going to be great. Then when I investigated afterwards, I said to Scully, did you like it?

He goes, no. Did Matt Granting? No. Did George? No. Did Jim? No. I was like, how did know to Jim? People should experiment I don't want to be mr. Negative, but I have to say I I just thought it was throwing away like the No, I don't know we don't need to talk about that anymore.

Yeah, I mean, thank you to Matt Groening and Al Jean for being diplomatic. Al Jean has to own up to writing the joke. But when it comes to that episode, Al Jean and Mike Reese not really on the show in a big capacity. They were consulting producers, I think. James L. Brooks working on his movie career, Matt Groening off developing Futurama. If they didn't like it, somebody could have stepped in, but this is just them admitting like, oh, we weren't paying close enough attention

to this idea we didn't like. So if you wanna blame somebody and you don't like the episode, I guess you can blame them for letting it through, but it happened, it still happened. I really dislike hearing Grating throw Bill, Josh and Ken Keeler under the bus of like, I was assured by the writers, no, it's gonna be great. And clearly the way he says it of like, I fucking hate that the writers, no, it's gonna be great. And clearly the way he says it of like,

I fucking hate that episode. Like that's the tone he's saying. Yeah, and also Bill, Josh and Ken worked on Futurama and Disenchantment. So Matt Groening has no ill will towards them obviously. Yeah, yeah. No, though I also think like, I think that speaks to the general feeling

that I believe that they felt, the powers that be at Simpsons felt they gave Bill and Josh to loose a leash when running the show. And especially when he says yes, Scully. Scully wasn't in charge then, but he was in charge of the season it aired as part of, in air season nine. He wasn't charged then. Yeah, it does seem like internally they don't like season seven and eight, although they love referencing them now, that people wanna see those references. And I think the idea is, oh, we let these people in their late 20s run the show, and they just went crazy. That'll never happen again, which is why

the current showrunners are like above the age of 55. I wanna return to that era in which it's like, oh, you're 29, here, run the Simpsons. Oh, you're 27, here, run the Simpsons. Oh, you're 27 here run the Simpsons I do think it's bullshit that they like in the episode I just watch of the fancy wine episode from the newest season There's a poochy joke in there like Homer has a poochy cell in his safe Like that's a joke in there and then I feel like there's a similar feeling of like poochy was too meta, too

And then now they love poucci references on the show. We can't wait to sell you Pucci all over again. The last thing that really bothered me about that clip especially is that one I feel like they're disrespecting Bill and Josh who oversaw great seasons and Al Jean says that he doesn't say the whole seasons were bad on there in that clip but when he says I don't like to be Mr. Negative but you, they throw away all the past of this character and he gets cut off there. But for him to say that, how many episodes

has Al Jean written that throw away pasts of so many characters? Yeah, that episode just establishes the past of Skinner. It doesn't throw anything away. Yeah, the person who's guilty of throwing away pasts with characters is you, Al Jean. You've done it in many episodes That wish they were half as good as principal in the popper

Yeah, I never thought I'm not trying to seem like I was enlightened but I was always like why does everybody hate this and then having to like argue with friends about it and and Then we finally had our catharsis with that live show We did in 2019 with Ali and Julia talking about how this is good We had Bill Oakley video intro talking about their intention with the episode and everything. And I think we've talked our way through it. But yeah, go back to that podcast if you want to hear us discuss that episode in full and why we like it. I'm glad that Bill, especially, has had his day in court to defend it. I feel like principal

in the popper and not guilty. Meanwhile, you can boo Snowball 2 being killed off and replaced with a new Snowball 2 and nobody talks about it ever again. Yes. That is my principle in the popper. The mod episode hated it so much when it aired and Panda Love, hate that too. Those were way lower moments in Armand Tams area. Yeah.

Jockey Elves, not fine. Actually, I was fine with that. I thought it was funny. In recent episodes, they are meaner to the Jockey Elves. I remember it in the fake clip show, they reference the Jockey Elves as them doing a crappy episode. So it's not just Principal and the Popper they attack,

at least. That one made me so mad hearing that. I would love to ask Alan Sepulwal, well, how do you feel about Principal and the Popper about this? I would think he would come to bat for it. Yeah, I want an updated opinion on this. It was cited as the worst episode of all time

until the year 2000, and things have really changed. I think things have changed even more in the past decade where I rarely hear that cited. But again, when I hear it's cited as the worst, I'm thinking, what century is this? Who is the president? Where am I? Did I hit my head?

And I pat ourselves on the back a little for helping change that. Yes, it's a great episode of television. All right, so that's it. Snowball 2's back. We'll never speak of it again. We then cut to the battle about to begin. Frank is patching over the weak spot.

That's now his strongest point, which has a good line. Yes, replacing it with a giant spiked plate. And then when the two bots face off, another incredible camera move around them. It's great. I wonder how, if it was computer assisted in any way, but it's amazing looking. And when we cut inside to when Homer is being shaken,

we see what only Laura McMullin can get away with, smears, like animation smears, and fun little gags that I wonder if they were in the script like Maggie being inside of the robot with Homer. It feels too cartoony and fun. Yeah the way she just like bounces up in the background and she's never acknowledged again it feels like oh did somebody put this in the layout as like a psych gag and they thought it was funny and they kept it in. It's so great I love that bit and seeing Homer's gums in there too as he's

being shaken around. Also, it's not an intentional reference, but Homer smashes the crotch of the robot going for the family jewels as he once instructed Bart to do. That's right, the family jewels. And Homer is so punch drunk that he starts singing That's My Boy Again, which that made me like the reuse of this joke. Yeah. Yeah the day's singing of the song and Bart learns the truth With an exposed butt crack and the brown one 230 rounds ago You look a little sluggish out there, boy. I better open you up.

Dad? Bart, I'm sorry. I could never build a robot this awesome. I'm a fraud. So you fought all those robots? Affirmative. That is so cool. You really think so? Yeah. Any poindexter can throw some nuts and bolts together. You risked your own life!

Even though you're the sole provider for a family of five. I am the luckiest kid in the world! And I'm the luckiest kid! Round Two! Yeah, we are two weeks away from the death of cartoon butts for a good solid decade. They didn't know they were getting in their last fun with these exposed butt cracks. But I mean a butt crack's always funny, always makes me laugh.

Homer being interrupted with his sweet reconnection, I suppose it's a little like Barth the Daredevil, I suppose. I do like Mel being in the audience though. Whenever somebody has to announce something, it has to be Sideshow Mel. That robot has given birth to a man! Yes, that was the bit where I was like this feels like a Fleischerism that Chi's putting in there because when Kilhamid A.E. steps on Chief Nakahomer, Homer pops out of it like it is a tin can of

spinach being squeezed by Papa. Yeah, yeah, I could see that being the reference, or at least the inspiration. It definitely looked like that to me too. Once Homer pops out, everybody is shocked at this reveal, and this is where we get the reason that this episode's title isn't entirely just pulled out of their ass. It actually is brought up slightly. Who is Gibbs? He's not killing me. I'll tell you what gives. I'm afraid he is subject to Isaac Asimov's laws of robotics with the sci-fi and the so many books, not too many good. My robot is programmed never to harm humans, you see, only to serve them. No! No! No! No! No!

No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No!

No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No!

No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! never did was send a mild electric shock up my backside. Why did you make it do that? Keep me focused. I guess that is how Homer knows Bart is using the remote. So it didn't need to be a shock, but it serves some purpose. Well, while Frank is explaining all that,

his child is shadowing all of his movements, too. It's an interesting animation choice. And I think bigger nerds knew about this, like Al Jean and professor Frank like it who they knew all about the three laws of robotics I don't think I learned about it until it is a major plot point of the Robin Williams movie by my stepdad is a big as a mob fan so I think I knew about them pretty early on in life see as a kid I was not like Martin Prince because I

preferred Brad Berry to ask mom yeah you know Frank is dead on with so many books not many good. Yeah nobody remembers the books they just remember the rules from them. Bicentennial Man is not the best movie it is an interesting thing now you know Robin Williams it's fun to see him but the movie starts with the robot being unboxed and explaining the three laws of robotics to With a handy light. I avoided that movie Because it looked like your cheesy schmaltz Well, I forget the I'm sorry. I forget the terminology they use for this type of movie on we hate movies

They have a great term for it, but it is like a TNT afternoon was spent watching hangover movie That's it. The hangover movie, yes. It like occupies a three hour block on cable TV because it's like two hours and 12 minutes long. It was a fun experiment that afternoon because I believe it was TNT was showing Bicentennial Man and when Bicentennial Man went on break I would change the channel and I want to say USA or Comedy Central had on patch atoms.

Whoa. And so I was flipping between these two terrible Robin Williams movies. I want to tell you something incredible that just happened. I made the joke about Bicentennial Man being two hours and 12 minutes long. I looked it up. It's exactly two hours and 12 minutes long. I had a feeling that is the perfect length for that movie. That fits in 45 minutes issue of ads for TV broadcast. Yes. Yes. I'm letting all of our listeners know. I just guessed that movie. That fits in, 45 minutes-ish of ads for TV broadcast. Yes, yes, I'm letting all of our listeners know. I just guessed that number. Bicentennial Man looks a lot better

if you keep occasionally flipping over to Patch Adams at the same time. You can see what you could be watching instead. What I said earlier that I thought McMullen loved referencing these Golden Age cartoons, that's also how it felt when the robot starts serving Homer, that it turns into one of those house of the future robots from like old tech savory

cartoons of like especially with the finger movements of making stuff. Yeah, yeah and how it's like pampering the dogs. Yes, yeah and Homer just gives up on it here but you know what this final ending I do like this resolution. And the winner is nature's greatest killing machine, Man! Boo! Show me where in the rule book it says that a human can't be a robot. Right here, rule one. Well then, join us next week for more inconclusive action

on Robot Rumble. I concur. Boo! Son, did you ever suspect it was me? Well, you did disappear a lot, but I've gone whole summers without seeing you. Yeah, I'm pretty unreliable. I like you, son.

I like you too, dad. Yeah, them sharing their like for each other is cute. Also, a very dark joke about Homer just disappearing for months at a time. He basically is a drunken drifter half of the time, and he smells worse than a hobo, as shown in just a couple episodes ago. Ending it with I like you, they're like,

you know, this episode's not good enough to earn it, I love you. We'll stick with it, I like you. Yeah, it's not that touching. Good Air Bud style joke, where it's like, show me in the rule book, right here, first line. That's immediately shooting down this hypothesis

You know, I like that Harry Shears character looks back at him like why'd you say I'm wrong immediately like let this end We're trying to end I concur The audience booze at it being a bad ending of like oh, well the homer just wins Well, why I don't know, cause it won't kill him. The end, they just wrap it up there. It is very abrupt. Yeah, yeah, and not the most clever way out, but hey, they ran out of time.

The resolution of like, hey, they've come to like each other even though they both can agree, Homer is an incredibly unreliable alcoholic. Yes, but he did the one thing for him. My final thoughts, animation, top of the line for season 15. They were so lucky to get Laura McMullen. In a better world, she would have been too busy working on season four or five of Mission Hill at this point

instead, but we live in a sadder world where she's the best director on season 15 of Simpsons. And she elevated an all right Homer Bart story and a personally to me insulting Lisa and Marge B-Plot. Yeah, her animation really saves this episode, her direction really saves it, and we only have a few more of her episodes left, so treasure them while you can

because they are the animation highlights of this decade of the show. But we talked about it, the Armitem Zarian stuff, don't like to see that regurgitated, don't like to see the punching downitated, don't like to see that, the punching down on that episode, and the robot stuff is well animated, but I don't think Homer sins enough

to have this much damage done to him. Although we just came off an episode where he was a huge jerk and had to suffer the Tis the 15th season, so maybe it was too soon after that. But in any case, I don't like to be reminded of BattleBots, and it's back in some way, but I can just look at the pretty animation and enjoy the episode.

Though, hey, if you ever start getting into BattleBots, Bob, you know there's like six, seven years of recent seasons you can dive into. If I do, you'll know I just got a divorce, and that does not seem very likely. How many BattleBots contestants are divorced? I'd like that stuff. Oh, by the way, it's my fourth wedding anniversary.

Hey, congrats, oh my God, that's right. It is this very day. Congratulations. We're going after dinner later. I'm not spending the entire day sitting in this podcast room talking about season 15 episodes of The Simpsons. So boy now I feel bad I made it this episode recording this day. It's okay. It is currently 1 18 p.m. So I'm going to go eat lunch after these plugs. So thank you everybody once again for listening to Talking Simpsons. If you want to get all these episodes without ads, no ads at all, and also a week ahead of time, head on over to patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons and sign up at that $5 level.

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slash Talking Simpsons and sign up there. There is also a $10 level that you might be interested in and on that level we release one very very long podcast once a month. Henry what's happening over there? Bob is talking about our What a Cartoon Movie podcast. Now if you enjoy all of that ad-free wonderfulness that Bob was just detailing for you. You'll really love our exploration of an animated feature film super duper in-depth. It's basically really you get three podcasts in one because it is five to six hours long usually. This month we talked about the first ever Disney animated feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Last month we talked about Frozen, so we've got two different

eras there and we have covered so many in over six years of What a Cartoon Movie, every Disney Renaissance film, many other Disney classics, plus tons of other movies. You know, we talked about Shrek earlier. We've covered the first Shrek. We've covered Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe. We talked about that too. We've had a six and a half hour long podcast about who framed Roger Rabbit. There's so many awesome podcasts there that you can only hear if you're at the premium ad free

$10 a month level at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. That also gets you all the $5 stuff. And I have been one of your hosts, Bob Mackie. You can find me on Twitter and Blue Sky as Bob Servo and my other podcast is called Retro Nots. That is a classic gaming podcast, all about old video games. You can find that wherever you find podcasts or go to patreon.com slash RetroNauts and sign up there for two full length bonus episodes every month. And Henry, how about you?

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And of course, TalkingSimpsons.com is your home for all of our previously released free podcasts. Thank you again for listening, everyone. We'll see you again next time for Season 5 Springfield or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling, and we'll see you then. I'm gonna go get some food. I'm gonna go get some food. I'm gonna go get some food. I'm gonna go get some food. I'm gonna go get some food. I'm gonna go get some food. I'm gonna go get some food.

I'm gonna go get some food. I'm gonna go get some food. I'm gonna go get some food. I'm gonna go get some food. I'm gonna go get some food. I'm gonna go get some food. I'm gonna go get some food.